23 posts tagged “stand-up”
Here's a comedy performance I was particularly please with - in the final of the North Essex New Act Competition (NENAC) on 28th March this year. I came joint-second.
I played a gig in Brighton last night that reminded me (if reminder were needed) of how much I love doing stand-up comedy. The gig is called Rabbit in the Headlights, and it's upstairs at a busy pub not far from Brighton Pier. I was due to do the gig just before Christmas, but one audience member turned up and so it got cancelled. This night was better - the small venue (which is also used for fringe-type drama productions) was completely sold out with people who were in the mood to laugh.
I was staying about a mile from the venue, which necessitated a walk along the seafront in some of the fiercest winds I have ever experienced. Going there was exhilarating: I was virtually blown all the way. Walking back into the path of the wind was a different story. Whenever I crossed a side street I had to cling to a lamppost or similar so as not to get blown away.
Anyway, back to the gig. I may not have said this before, but stand-up comedy is one of the friendliest and most sociable businesses I have ever experienced. I have met very few arsey comedians. Normally everyone's really friendly, and you see some of the same faces you've seen before, and backstage the talk is all of material and gigs, and mutual friends - and it's great fun. Especially when there is a backstage... often that means just standing around at the back of the pub. Last night, there was a dressing room. Well, upstairs and along a very narrow corridor there was a room with a piece of paper on the door that said "dressing room". The room was a small bathroom with some chairs in it. So, the comics sat around in a bathroom, chewing the fat, shooting the breeze.
One drawback of a sell-out gig is that you can't get in to see the other acts. But upstairs in our bathroom we could hear gales of laughter. I was on in the second half, and stood outside the door to the venue listening to the compere and the guy on before me, getting a feel for the "room" (as we call it).
And they were brilliant - a bunch of women from Haywards Heath nearly exploded with laughter. They were one of the best audiences I've had in ages, and they loved me. It was such a joy to stand on stage and feel the waves of laughter and love. Wonderful, wonderful gig. And I got some money for expenses - RESULT!
The Quay Arts Centre, Newport on the Isle of Wight... a short drive and a 40 minute car ferry ride away from my home in Southsea. Beautiful venue - a local arts centre built in old red brick buildings (warehouses, I'd guess) on the river in Newport. An audience of 60ish people, all ages, sitting at tables and looking forward to a good night out. I was nervous because I hadn't had a gig since before Christmas, and I'd had a couple of not-that-good ones in December. And also, I was headlining (admittedly, it was a new act night... but it's still a big deal for me to be top of the bill).
It was a complete delight! I did about 15/20 minutes, worked in a few new jokes, forgot a few bits and then brought them back in later... in fact, I felt very relaxed and discursive. It was great fun. What a shame I forgot to take my video camera with me.
Meanwhile, here's an old photo that I've just been sent. This is from Edinburgh 2007, taken during our Free Festival show Late & Free @ Hillside. Note the glamorous venue - a cross between the Black Hole of Calcutta and your grandmother's front room.
Here is the video from a gig I did about a month ago. It's taken a while to upload it because it was a big file and I had to use my limited computer knowledge to shrink it so I could post it here. It's a gig I did at a comedy club called You Jest, at a venue called Talking Heads in Southampton, and it's probably the performance that I'm proudest of so far. I really enjoyed it and felt very relaxed doing a longer set than usual. Definitely one of my best yet. A few new jokes, some old favourites. Apologies as always for the quality - recorded on a very basic video camera by a guy standing at the back of the room. Enjoy!
Show us what the weekend has in store for you.
Comedy gig tomorrow in Southampton. Nice venue, good bunch of people, close to home. I'm looking forward to it.
After all the agonies of writing it, I'm really pleased with the response that Can't Let Go is getting so far. I went up to have lunch with my editor and assorted sales and marketing people from Random House last week, and when I arrived at the offices the receptionist told me that I'd kept her awake until three in the morning. She'd been reading a manuscript copy of the book the night before, and wanted me to know that she'd had to stay awake to finish it. This meant such a lot to me. She was the first person apart from my agent and editor who I knew had read the book - the first "real" person, if you like - and I was delighted with her response.
Meanwhile my agent is busy, and we're just agreeing foreign rights deals with both Germany and the Netherlands. This is exciting and also very reassuring from a financial standpoint. It's not easy to make money from fiction when you're not a well-known and successful writer, and sometimes the returns seem tiny compared to the work involved. So it's good to get some totally unexpected money coming in from foreign sales.
In my other life, I've had a couple of good comedy gigs recently that gave me the chance to build on what I'd learned at Edinburgh. Comedy at the Kirk is a lovely club above the Selkirk pub in Tooting Broadway, run by people who seem to love what they're doing. It was a return visit, and it was a slow night because it coincided with England-Russia at Wembley. But it gave me the chance to do some completely new material in a supportive and non-combative atmosphere, which was fun.
Big Jack's Laughter Club in Reading was another repeat visit, and another favourite club of mine. I did a 15-minute set there, mixing some old and new material, and was thrilled with my reception. It gave me a lot of confidence, and a reminder of why I love doing stand-up comedy.
I've just seen the artwork for the show I'm doing at the Fringe, and I'm very excited by it. Here it is... and if you're in Edinburgh at all during those three weeks in August, please come along to see it.
More details on www.myspace.com/lateandfree
I had an indifferent gig last night at the Newbury Comedy Festival. Newbury is a pleasant market town about an hour from here, and I was taking part in the new act competition. I did my turn, told my jokes, was professional and slick (too slick) and pretty solid. I got quite a few laughs but not many guffaws. I didn't die but - I just didn't enjoy it very much. Probably the first time ever that I felt a bit meh about a gig. Usually, even the bad ones are great fun. I felt I didn't get any interraction going with the crowd. The gig was in the local arts centre, and the audience was quite middle-class and a little older than usual, which normally works for me. So - maybe I'm getting complacent and need to do something a bit different. I don't know.
Anyway, I didn't make it to the final of the competition. And I didn't enjoy the gig. Not Newbury's fault, not really my fault either. Just one of those bland nights that happens sometimes. Anyway, I'm trying to work out whether the reviewer for Newbury Today liked me or not - or maybe he too was completely indifferent:
Jane Hill, a self-confessed fortysomething spinster who mixed up knowing stereotypes about women of her age with some filthy gags.
Those of you who've watched my clips, please tell me what's filthy about my gags... I got the strong impression that the good folk of Newbury didn't like the pubic hair stuff. Maybe that's the problem. Where I normally get a huge laugh, I got a chorus of "eeewwww"s.
Video: Show us a video of yourself.
Submitted by JamesTr.
I've already posted this elsewhere on this blog, but if you haven't seen it, here's your chance.
The Havant Comedy Competition, which I did last night, was great fun. There were ten new-ish acts (me included) competing, and it was very friendly. Some of them I knew already, some of them I met for the first time last night, but all of them were both nice and funny. Norman Lovett was just as nice as he was last time I met him.
A very funny guy called Daniel Hoy won the competition and received a beautiful (not) trophy. His set was full of the most unlikely puns and set-ups - positively groanworthy, in a good way.
My set went down really well - one of my best nights ever. I felt very confident, and got a great response from the audience. I won the "Norman Lovett Award", voted for by our headline act. I think it was just a posh way of saying "consolation prize", but I was dead chuffed anyway. My prize was a suspiciously cheap-looking bottle of perry, which I donated to one of the other competitors who's a student and will therefore drink anything.
All in all, a fantastic night.
